Lost on the Nile
by ApprenticeMana
Summary: Atem and Mana suddenly get lost on the Nile River when they take a boat trip. As if that couldn't get any worse, Mana is seriously ill and Atem must care for her until someone finds them. AtemxMana


Yugioh belongs to Kazuki Takahashi.

A young prince walks through the halls of the royal palace in search of a friend that morning. He is really trying to get away from the lectures that he would have to have later on that day and figures he should skip those lectures with his friend. He has spiky tri colored hair and amethyst eyes. His eyes are shaped in a narrowed way and his skin is a nice shade of brown. He wears a gold crown with other gold jewelry. Plus a shirt and skirt that reaches his knees. Not to mention the blue cape.

His name is Atem, but only he and his father know that. Every one else in the palace refers to him as Prince since he has not yet inherited the throne yet. He is sixteen years old and has matured greatly, although he does show signs of immaturity at times, such as skipping his lectures. But overall, he is a kind and caring person.

He opens the door to a teenage girl's room who is a year younger than him. He approaches the girl who is under the covers in her bed. "Mana, wake up," he says, shaking her lightly. She slowly sits up, her hair all over the place and her eyes heavy.

"Prince?" They are both very close friends, knowing each other since they were toddlers. Whenever they have the time, they always hang out with each other. Mana has brown spiky hair going just past her shoulders along with aquamarine eyes. She is a magician in training and like him, she also likes to skip her lessons.

"What are you still doing in bed?"

"I'm sick."

Atem smirks, not believing her reply. "Right," he says sarcastically. "That's just an excuse to avoid your lessons again."  
"But I really am sick," she says looking at him, but seeing that he will not believe her, she sighs. "I'll be up in a few."

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Mana tightly puts her arms around Atem's waist as they ride on his white horse through the hot desert. The horse kicks up sand with each gallop. She rests her forehead on his back and sighs. "Where are we going?"

"To the Nile. There's a small abandoned boat out there that we can use."

"How long are we gonna be out there anyway?"

"What's the rush?"

"I told you, I'm sick," Mana says.

"Mana, we're already out of the palace. You can cut it out now." The horse slows down as they reach the Nile and later comes to a complete stop. Atem hops off the horse before helping Mana down. Atem takes a deep breath, enjoying the breeze. Then he looks to the small wooden boat with the wooden paddle.

Mana follows him to the boat where they both push it out to the water and quickly get in before it can go too far. Atem takes control of the paddle while Mana observes the water where fish swim below. She sees a drop go into the water and she looks up, seeing a cloudy sky. A storm is coming. They didn't get too many storms, just small amounts of rainfall. But this storm looks like it would be big. "Prince, I know you can ride a horse well, but are you sure you can row a boat?"  
"Of course. Why?" She points up to the sky and he looks up at the clouds which are dark and forming close together. "We'll be fine."

Meanwhile, back at the palace, Pharaoh Akunamanon paces around the throne room, wondering where his son could be. One of his priests, Mahad, sees this and approaches him, bowing in respect. "Rise Mahad," the king commands and Mahad obeys.

"Is there something wrong my king?" asks Mahad.

"My son is not here. In fact, I have sent someone to find him, but he is nowhere inside the palace."  
"I see." 'And Mana is gone as well.'

"Mahad this is not good. It is not safe out there especially with a storm approaching."

A wave hits their boat and Mana shields her face with her arm as Atem tries to steer through the storm. The boat is rocking and moving up and down with the waves and the heavy rain only makes it harder to see. Another wave hits them, causing Atem to lose his balance and drop the paddle into the river. Luckily Mana pulls him down to safety and they lie helplessly and soaked in the boat as the waves continue to rock them up and down and side to side.

Suddenly, Atem and Mana spot a larger wave coming their way. Atem's heart drops, sensing that this is probably the end. They scream as the wave finally crashes down on them.

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"Prince. Prince, please wake up," Mana pleads with worried eyes as she shakes him. The storm has passed and the sun is once again shining brightly in the sky. Although, it will be night soon. Atem's eyes slowly open to see Mana above him with a worried look on her face.

"What happened?" he asks, sitting up.

"A large wave hit us and now we're lost out here on the Nile."

"No…" He looks around to see nothing but water and land on each side. Before, he knew exactly where they were going. But because of the storm, it threw him off and now he doesn't know which direction to go. And without a paddle, they aren't going anywhere anytime soon. He takes the crown off his head and wipes his sweaty forehead.

"I knew this wasn't such a great idea…"

"Stay calm," Atem tells her and he takes time to think on how they would get out of this mess. Then a thought pops into his head and he quickly looks at Mana. "Mana, call your bird here."

Mana's eyes widen, knowing where he is going with this. She whistles for her bird Anzu to come to them and momentarily, a brown bird flies down to their boat. Atem takes off one of his rings and the bird puts the piece of jewelry into its mouth.

"Anzu, take that to the palace and hurry," Mana commands and the bird immediately flies off.

Suddenly feeling a wave of nausea, Mana scurries to the end of the boat and empties out her stomach. She sighs after the last of it escapes her mouth. "Mana, are you alright?" Atem asks with concern.

"I already told you, I'm sick…really sick."

"You mean you weren't faking to skip your lessons?"  
"No…not this time. That's why I didn't want to come in the first place." Atem goes over to her and sits besides her. He presses his forehead against hers, comparing her temperature with his. Her forehead is a lot hotter than his. He pulls away and she rests her head on the edge of the boat.

There is a cool breeze and Atem looks up to the sky. Day is turning into night and when that happens, the temperature drops drastically. 'This isn't good.'

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The moon now shines in the sky. It is a bright full moon, accompanied with stars that are in the sky. A cool wind blows, sending chills throughout their bodies. They are huddled close together for warmth. Mana is sitting in Atem's arms and her head is resting on his chest, her eyes are closed to try to overcome the painful headache.

"Y-You think th-they'll c-c-come?" asks Mana as she shivers.

"Of c-course. J-Just h-hang on M-Mana." Mana opens her eyes and outstretches her hand. She squints her eyes and focuses on the energy in her hand. A green blanket forms in her hand, large enough to cover them both. She drops her hand, gasping for air and Atem puts the blanket over them. "Save your strength Mana. You're in no condition to be doing spells."

"Prince?"

"Hm?"

"If we don't make it out alive, I just wanted to say that I lo--"

"Don't talk like that. Everything is going to be just fine."

"My head is pounding…" Atem touches her head with his hand and his eyes widen to feel how hot she is. "It's getting worse isn't it? Maybe you'll survive Prince."

"We both are."

Mana smiles and leans her head back on his shoulder. "If I die, don't cry at my funeral alright?"

"Stop it Mana, you're not going to die any time soon. We'll both be saved and brought back to the palace. And there, you can get well again. Now try to get some rest."

"Prince?"

"Rest Mana."

"I love you." Atem looks down at her, only to see that she is sleep. He sighs and rests his head in her hair, closing his eyes.

'I love you too Mana…'

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The sun once again shines in the blue sky with white puffy clouds surrounding it. Atem opens his eyes and yawns. The green blanket is over him and him only. He looks forward to the other side of the boat to see Mana lying there, curled up in a ball with a hand clenching her hair. "Mana." He crawls over to her and picks her up in his arms. Her eyes are slightly red from crying and her face is pale looking. He once again feels her forehead. 'Her fever has gotten worse.'

"I'm not gonna make it," she says, her voice slightly hoarse.

"Stay strong." Hearing a bird's cry, they both look up to see Mana's bird flying overhead and not too far ahead of them are two boats coming toward them. "Hang in there Mana. Help is on the way." When he doesn't hear her reply, he looks down to see her eyes closed. "Mana!" He taps her lightly on the side to wake her up but it is no use. "Mana, don't you dare! Open your eyes! Mana!" he pleads over and over again but she still does not wake.

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Atem sits by Mana's bedside, holding one of her hands as she sleeps. As soon as they got back, Mana was immediately rushed to get some medical attention. She hasn't woken up since she passed out in the boat. Even though he is in a lot of trouble, the only thing that he cares about now is Mana.

"Mana I'm so sorry for putting you through all of this. If I had listened to you in the first place, you wouldn't be in this state. I promise I will never put you through something like that again." He bows his head and shuts his eyes, trying to keep the tears from falling. But one creeps out of his eyelid and falls to the ground.

"But Prince…" His head shoots up on hearing her voice. Her eyes are still closed but he is certain he heard her voice just now. "I had fun. It was quite an adventure."

"Mana?"

"We should do it again sometime," she says opening her eyes and looking at him with a smile. "…When I'm not sick."

"You're alright!" Mana quickly sits up and does a couple of neck rolls.

"I don't know what those doctors did but it sure did do the trick," she says before staring out into space. "Hey…maybe they're…magicians or something…" Atem smiles, happy that his friend is back to her normal self and most of all, feeling a lot better. Mana suddenly looks out the door to see Atem's father standing there with a serious look on his face and Atem looks as well. Akunamanon motions him to follow and Atem stands up. Before leaving, he looks back at Mana with a smirk and she smiles and waves to him as he leaves.

"Mana needs her rest. In the mean time, we need to talk about your punishment my son," says his father.

"Yes father."

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"PRINCE!" Mana yells with excitement the next day, running to his balcony and glomping him. Atem stumbles a bit but he manages to keep his balance. "GOOD MORNING!"

"Good morning Mana. I see you're feeling better."

"Much better," she says, wrapping her arms around his neck and pressing her forehead to his to show him that her temperature is back to normal.

"I'm glad. You had me worried and you just don't act the same when you're sick."

Mana hops off of him and smiles brightly at him. "I know. I felt so terrible. But now I'm all better now!" she exclaims, jumping high and maybe a little too high because she is now over the balcony, about to fall over. Atem quickly catches her from the back of her blouse and pulls her up with ease.

"Glad to see you're back to you're old self again."

"Hey Prince? Did you get in trouble because of me?"

"It wasn't your fault. I'm the one that forced you to go in the first place."  
"So what's your punishment?"

"Longer lectures."

"Aw man, how harsh."

"I know. But I'm just glad that you're alright."

"Me too Prince."

"Atem."  
"Huh?"

"My name is Atem. Nobody knows but you and my father."

"Oh…"

"But only call me that when we're alone. You'd probably be in big trouble if you were to call me that in public."

"Okie-dokie Pr- I mean Atem. But why'd you tell me your name all of a sudden?"  
"Because I know that you can keep a secret and I don't want you calling me 'Prince' every time you tell me that you love me," he tells her with a smirk.

"Eep!"

"You shouldn't be surprised. I already knew before you even confessed on the boat."  
"It was that obvious?"

"Please. I've known you for years. You should know that you can't hide anything from me." Mana blushes madly and looks away. How could he know? Was it the way that she looked at him or the way she acted when she was around him? His arms encircle her waist causing her to look back at him. "And by the way, I love you too." He uses his free hand to cup her chin and bring her face closer to his. Soon the space between them diminishes and their lips meet in a passionate kiss. But it doesn't last for long when they hear footsteps coming toward them and they quickly pull away.

"Mana, it's time for your lesson," says Mahad and Mana groans.

"Aw, but I'm sick," she lies.

He grabs her arm and drags her away while she protests and Atem chuckles. "Not this time Mana," he hears Mahad say to her.

"Hey wait! Let me go!" she yells and she begins to cough. "I'm sick see! I am! GAAAH!" Atem laughs but they are cut short when his father approaches him.

"How about those lectures?" he says.

Atem's eyes widen with horror and he thinks about an excuse. "Uh…I am sick?" His father grabs his arm and drags him off to the throne room. "NOOO!"

_I hope you enjoyed my story and feel free to check out my other AtemxMana fics! Please review and tell me what you think!_


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